


A Lady and her Butler

by emothy



Category: Japanese Drama, Mei-chan no Shitsuji (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-12-27
Updated: 2009-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 04:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emothy/pseuds/emothy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every lady requires something different from her butler. And every butler has his own reason for serving his lady.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Izumi + Kiba

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When Izumi thinks of graduation, she thinks of the most likely route her future will take."

When Izumi thinks of graduation, she thinks of the most likely route her future will take. She will marry - no doubt for politics - and her husband will be intelligent, sophisticated; perhaps even handsome if she is lucky. She will respect him but she will not love him.

If Izumi hadn't been walking into her future with her eyes wide open she might've found herself losing her serious attitude and falling straight into despair. She is thankful at least that nobody has ever tried to lie to her - a luxury she truly cannot afford.

Izumi's future husband will count himself very lucky, whoever he might be. Izumi will be beautiful right down to the finishing touches and the tiny effects that nobody will ever notice. She will smile, stand gracefully, say all the right things. It will be because of her more often than not that things will all tend to work out. With her soft but firm words and her intense eyes she will make problems simply disappear. Her husband won't only be in awe of her, he will most definitely fall in love with her.

Izumi will still worry. It is a habit she will never grow out of. She might even secretly become a fan of surgical remedies - not for her own sake, of course, but for her husband's sake. For appearances' sake. What would people think if she were to walk around immaculate but for a horrible worry line running across her forehead?

After a difficult day, Izumi will say nothing. She will simply excuse herself from her husband's sight as his gaze lingers after her jealously. She will retire to her rooms, take the cup of tea offered to her. She will curl fingers around the warmth and breathe in the hot steam, allowing it to soothe her tension.

"I don't know how you do it, Izumi-sama," Kiba will say as he fusses in the background with her nightgown, her reading material and her slippers. She will sit with a migraine beginning as her brain struggles to process just how many more things there are to be done, how nothing is ever complete. "Nobody else can manage so many different things as you, in so many different ways, and all with grace and tact!"

At first you might believe Izumi is too wrapped up in herself to notice, but she hears every word Kiba says, always. He might babble - a trait of his own he has never grown out of - but if she listens long enough and hard enough in there she always finds her strength again.

"Kiba," she would say, placing a hand on his wrist both to stop him in his tracks and calm his words, "thank you."

Kiba would nods solemnly, a smile threatening to bounce across his cheeks. And then he would trip over Izumi's bunny slippers and Izumi will laugh for the first time in what feels like forever.


	2. Fujiko + Nezu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Fujiko has never been a rebel."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's no canon (that I can remember) that mentions Fujiko's family so all "facts" are made up by me in order to justify her characterization.

Fujiko has never been a rebel. She has always been happy to go along with the crowd in a general sense, agreeing to the majority rule. On first glance she seems just like all the other girls, the kind that go to St. Lucia Academy, and that is why she fits right in. She has been bred to know what to do and say, and when to do and say it.

Nezu is quite possibly the worst butler she could have had at all, and she wouldn't have it any other way. When Nezu speaks, Fujiko's knees shake. When Nezu puts his arm around her, Fujiko melts into it. She appears to become a bumbling mess, a trembling flower. She forgets her words and does nothing but squeal or sigh.

Others might roll their eyes. Some girls might consider Fujiko soft, or weak.

Fujiko can't help but lean towards Nezu. As the eldest child she has been handed nothing but expectations, while all seven of her younger sisters are dosed with love and attention, spoilt and adored. Away from home, away from everyone who shares her name, for the first time in her life Fujiko feels she can be herself. Nezu helps her to realise just who that is. With Nezu she can't help but feel she can do anything.

She doesn't intend to rebel, it simply happens. In her mind her plans for after graduation are her and Nezu. A small house, simple necessities. She learns to cook cheap, basic meals. Nezu does his bulter duties and offers to sample them gracefully, knowing that coming from a girl of very high breeding and very little practical experience he could be setting himself up for a quick hospital visit afterwards. But she surprises him, both with her skill and with the fact that he actually enjoys the plain but delicious food.

Fujiko is constantly surprising him, in completely different ways than he does to her. These are not furtive kisses on the cheek or twining fingers in her hair, and they leave him with a deeper, much more lasting impression than those things first did on her.

Fujiko doesn't talk much about the future. The other girls understand, each with secret fears of their own. The majority of them know their future is set out for them with no choices. St. Lucia is there both to spoil them beforehand, and to give them a chance to realise it and accept the future gracefully. Fujiko is always graceful, as she should be, but she is accepting of the fact that one day Nezu will be not her butler but her husband. She makes her own plans and realises one day with a start that this could mean she will be disowned for disobeying.

There will always be another girl to step up and take on the duties of an heir anyway. Fujiko can't let it worry her - for once it isn't about everyone else in her family; it is only about her.

She wouldn't have the confidence to do it all without Nezu.


End file.
